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Canadians lose to Samoa, finish 14th to conclude Vancouver Sevens

Canada's Pat Kay, right, is tackled by Samoa's Murphy Paulo during World Rugby Sevens Series action, in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday March 11, 2018. (Jonathan Hayward/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Jim Morris, The Canadian Press
Published Sunday, March 11, 2018 3:29PM EDT
Last Updated Sunday, March 11, 2018 10:18PM EDT

VANCOUVER -- The fragile character of Canada's rugby sevens team was shown in a 21-15 loss to Samoa Sunday.

The Canadian men led the game 10-0 at one point, bringing roars of approval from the hometown crowd. Canada then allowed a try late in the first half, followed by another early in the second. Samoa would score 21 unanswered points before Canada managed a try in extra time.

The loss left Canada in 14th place at the HSBC Canada Sevens Rugby tournament. It's the worst finish in three years of the event.

The collapse was something head coach Damian McGrath has seen too often this season.

"That's probably the story of our year so far," said a frustrated McGrath. "We mix the sublime with the ridiculous.

"Teams see us as weak. When they get a score, they can get another one. We have to find a way to stop that. If there is a crack in the dam we have to find a way to block it."

In the gold-medal game, Fiji scored 19 unanswered second-half points to defeat Kenya 31-12. The win makes Fiji the first team to win twice on the 10-country HSBC World Rugby Seven Series this season.

Fiji won the tournament in Hamilton, New Zealand, in early February, and was third last week in Las Vegas.

South Africa defeated the U.S. 29-7 to win the bronze medal. The U.S. won last week's tournament.

South Africa leads the series with 109 points, followed by Fiji with 101 and New Zealand with 92. The U.S. is sixth with 73 and Canada 11th with 37.

An announced crowd of 77,096 attended the two-day tournament at BC Place Stadium. Fiji drew one of the largest and most vocal contingents with fans that chanted, waved flags and pounded drums.

Scattered in the rest of the crowd was one group sporting shaggy white wigs and fake mustaches to look like Albert Einstein. Another group dressed like a pit crew from a F-1 race. There also were also hula dancers, men dressed like highway patrol officers, panda bears, a couple of bees, various other furry animals and two young girls, one decked out like a piece of pizza, the other a hot dog.

Canada, which finished with a 2-3-1 record, showed a Jekyll and Hyde personality all weekend. The flashes of brilliance and quality play were counterbalanced by mental errors and costly mistakes.

"A lot of it comes down to mental work," said captain Harry Jones. "Those little marginal errors that sometimes we make, the top teams aren't doing.

"If we can fix that one small part of our game we'll be top eight or top four a lot more often."

Canada finished seventh at last year's tournament and ninth in 2016.

During pool play on Saturday, Canada pushed both the U.S. and Australia to their limits. A late mistake resulted in a 28-21 loss to the U.S. Earlier the Canadians scored a try in the final seconds for a 19-19 draw with Australia.

McGrath said his players don't lack effort, they just need to clean up the mistakes.

"It's a mental issue," he said. "Every game that hasn't gone our way it's been about our own making. Our mistakes have cost tries.

"It just shows the margin between success and failure is close and at the moment we have been pushing ourselves to the negative side."

Canada had a 1-1-1 record Saturday but finished third in Pool A and failed to advance to the Cup competition. The top two qualifiers from the four pools advanced to the championship playoffs.

Canada defeated Uruguay 47-5 in its final pool match but still needed the U.S. to beat Australia to move onto the championship playoffs. The Australians erased a 21-7 half-time deficit for a 31-21 win.

Canada started Sunday looking flat in a 19-0 loss to previously winless Scotland. Canada made eight errors and gave away the ball 12 times.

McGrath called it one of the worst games he'd seen the team play.

The Canadians regrouped to beat France 31-19. Canada trailed three times in the match but battled back to score 17 unanswered second-half points. Nathan Hirayama led the attack with two tries and three converts.

Jones said Canada isn't far from being a good team and a weekly contender.

"It's doing the simple things right, over and over again," he said.

"Sevens isn't a complicated game. When you look at the top teams they do the exact same thing over and over again."

Canada's best result at a tournament this season was a fourth in Cape Town.

Canada finished eighth in the overall standings last year with 98 points, managing a win in Singapore and a third place in London. The Canadians were 13th in 2015-16 with 40 points.